The Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ), Water Quality
Planning Bureau (WQPB) is the state's delegated authority for conducting and
reporting on statewide water quality status and trends under the Federal Clean
Water Act (CWA). The Montana Water Quality Act (MWQA), (MCA 75-5-702(5)) also
directs the department to "...develop and maintain a data management system that
can be used to assess the validity and reliability of the data used in the
listing and priority ranking process. The department shall make available to the
public, upon request, data from its data management system..." To meet its
statutory obligations under the CWA and MWQA, the DEQ and its contractor
developed the Water Quality Assessment, Reporting, and Documentation System
(WARD).
The WARD application assists the WQPB in its effort to
efficiently manage its water quality monitoring data, analyze data, track
assessment conclusions, and plan its future. Prior to WARD, the WQPB maintained
its water quality monitoring data using Excel spreadsheets. Spreadsheets,
however, have their limitations when it comes to management of complex
information. In contrast, the new system provides the following improvements:
Enables the WQPB to benefit from management of complex information
using a centralized database;
The information is consistent, complete, up-to-date and easily
accessible using a browser from any desktop within the permitted network;
Provides a single window to compile and access functionality from
several existing applications, tools, and processes;
Incorporates business rules and data elements of DEQ’s Excel
assessment record files;
Links Water Quality Standards Attainment (WQSA) determinations with
DEQ’s Water Quality Planning Bureau Library (WQPBL);
Tracks assessment conclusions in EPA’s Assessment Database (ADB);
Multi-user application with relevant user-level security;
Reporting capabilities to produce hardcopy 305(b)/303(d) reports.
The WARD application is only available to those within the state
firewall and only to those with permission. To acquire permission please contact
the WARD project manager. Public access to the information available in WARD is available via the
program’s newly enhanced public reporting web site, the
Clean Water Act
Information Center (CWAIC) available through the Montana State Library’s
Natural
Resources Information Service.
